Recent Posts

Out of the haze of DNA–protein crosslink repair

Dvořák Tomaštíková et al. study the role of SMC5/6 complex in repair of toxic DNA protein crosslinks in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell (2023). By Pecinka Ales and Eva Dvořák Tomaštíková Background: Cellular DNA is constantly damaged by various internal and external factors that eventually…

A plant-specific module for homologous recombination repair (PNAS)

Damage to DNA occurs through exposure to environmental stresses in animal and plant kingdoms alike. While the former groups are relatively well explored when it comes to DNA damage response (DDR) mechanisms, plant-related knowledge lags behind. A recent study by Wang et al. revealed a unique plant DDR…

ATM safeguards Arabidopsis meiosis

Kurzbauer and colleagues combine genetic, genomic and cytological analyses to reveal the role of ATM during Arabidopsis meiosis.  By Marie-Therese Kurzbauer and Peter Schlögelhofer, Department of Chromosome Biology, Max Perutz Labs, University of Vienna, Vienna BioCenter Background: ATM is…